Saturday, December 5

Previously, I noted encounters with a red pickup truck with an "OU" sticker in its back window on Shady Grove Road in North Richland Hills. Most times, when you get honked at, it’ll happen once and you will never encounter the vehicle or driver again. Getting harassed by the same motorist repeatedly over time is rare. Unfortunately, Forester’s advice about this unusual situation in Effective Cycling has proved completely useless so far.

I encountered my OU truck friend once again Friday morning. This makes three encounters. I'm happy to report that I think we’re making progress. Perhaps there IS something to that “safety in numbers” theory and I’m simulating it by simply repeatedly encountering the same motorist over and over. See if you don’t agree

First encounter – motorist honked with his extra loud and irritating air horn and then stopped after passing so he could threaten to back over me. This incident taught me to be more cautious about making even friendly waves to motorists. It also made me realize that if you are controlling the lane, that's not necessarily good if a motorist decides to jam his truck into reverse and crush you. Under those conditions, a position along the fog line gives you a better chance for escape. Luckily for me, that's not a frequently encountered situation and this guy did not actually go beyond shifting into reverse.

Second encounter - motorist honked with his extra loud and irritating air horn and then slowed down considerably after passing, before deciding not to stop so he could then back over me. No threats the second time.

Third encounter – NO HONK! All the motorist did this time was do one of those aggressive sounding “gun your engine accelerate things” as he passed. He was accelerating fast enough that I wasn’t able to take down the license number for possible future reference. How come these guys don't stop in front of me when I'm prepped to memorize a license number?

I never imagined a honkless pass would be cause for a blog post! At this rate, we’ll soon be Facebook friends and gather by the fireside to sing "Kumbaya" together. By the way, this guy MUST be very influential in the motoring world because nobody else honked all day, either. Perhaps I need to send him down to Orlando for a few weeks so he can calm down the motorists in the CommuteOrlando area.

singalong song

PS: Entirely by coincidence, when checking Shady Grove Road in Google Maps, I notice that part of what Google Maps labels as Shady Grove Road is actually part of a Walmart parking lot. I sense another in the "Parking Lot" series coming up. Perhaps Rantwick's mom would approve of parking lots as long as Google thinks they're really streets?

4 comments:

This person sounds dangerous. In the first incident, he threatened you with a deadly weapon. I would not rely too much on this "progress" you describe. What if the next time he sees you, he happens to be in a bad mood? Do you encounter him close to where you live? If so, he might live in your neighborhood and you can report him to the police. No doubt they would be able to find the owner of such a distinct vehicle?

I agree the person has some personal issues, which is why I'd really like to have his license plate number - then I have something tangible when I go talk to the police. I do not think he lives in my city. Meanwhile, I take comfort that the trend, if there is any, is positive.

I think it'd be prudent in being proactive in dealing with this jerk. Maybe file a complaint with the local police dept or something. His behavior is like seeing a mouse in the daytime. One seen during the day means there's at least ten running around at night.

I'm sure my Mom would OK them. She was more wary of the heart of big parking lots. For those of you who don't know, I once remarked that my Mother used to tell us kids that parking lots were possibly the most dangerous places in the world. For little kids, I think she may have been right.

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Context

Subject MatterMostly it's about local transportation cycling, as it exists in the here and now. It's got a smattering of other gratuitous toy recreation thrown in to keep y'all a little off balance. For those that don't know me, toy recreation means English & Italian cars, aircraft - and downhill skiing.